Carters Lake Water Level
Carters Lake is at 1,072.39 ft today (Oct 6), 1.61 ft below its 1,074 ft full pool, down 0.69 ft this week.
Georgia · Coosawattee River
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Water level history
About Carters Lake
Carters Lake is a reservoir on the Coosawattee River in Georgia, operated by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It's the deepest lake in Georgia. Its full summer pool sits at 1074 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from USGS gauge 02381400 and update every 15 to 60 minutes.
Understanding Carters Lake's water level
Carters Lake is a pumped storage project, and that explains most of what you see on the gauge from one day to the next. Two of the four generating units at Carters Dam can run in reverse: when power demand is low they pump water out of the reregulation pool just downstream and back up into the main lake, and when demand rises that water goes back through the turbines. The Corps rates the powerhouse at 500,000 kilowatts. The result is a lake that rises and falls a little every day, even in dry weather. In the USGS record the typical gap between a day's highest and lowest reading is about a foot and a half, and one day in ten sees more than two and a half feet. Below the main dam, the reregulation dam holds a pool of roughly 1,000 acres that can swing between 662.5 and 698 feet, taking up those daily pulses before water moves on down the Coosawattee. There is a free ramp on that lower pool near the powerhouse off Old Highway 411.
The Mobile District of the Corps of Engineers runs the main lake between a minimum power pool of 1,022 feet and a maximum power pool of 1,074 feet in the dry season, lowered to 1,072 feet in the wet season. In practice the level rarely strays far from that band: the median reading for every month in the USGS record falls between about 1,071.8 and 1,074.4 feet, highest in April and lowest in November. Everything above 1,074 feet is flood storage, 95,700 acre-feet of it, up to the top of the flood control pool at 1,099 feet, with the dam crest at 1,112.3 feet. The lake drains 376 square miles above the dam, and storms push it into that flood space often; every year from 2009 through 2025 the daily average topped 1,076 feet at least once. The gauge history on this page comes from USGS daily records that begin in June 2007, so its all time high and low cover that window only, not the three decades before it.
Carters is the deepest of Georgia's reservoirs. The Corps puts the average depth at about 200 feet, with parts of the lake more than 450 feet deep, behind a rockfill dam that rises 445 feet above its foundation and that the Corps calls the tallest earthen dam east of the Mississippi. Work on the main dam began in 1962. The surface covers about 3,220 acres at full pool with 62 miles of shoreline, and none of that shoreline is open to private development; the only marina is Carters Lake Marina and Resort. Steep, rocky banks shape the fishery. Georgia DNR lists Alabama bass, striped bass and walleye as the best bets. Genetic testing showed the lake's dominant black bass are native Alabama bass, which grow larger than Kentucky spotted bass and account for the lake's reputation for magnum spots, with fish over five pounds still common. DNR stocks walleye every spring and stripers and hybrids every year, and calls Carters one of the state's better lakes for big walleye.
Carters Lake — frequently asked
What is full pool at Carters Lake?
The Corps lists maximum power pool as 1,074 feet in the dry season and 1,072 feet in the wet season, so a reading anywhere in that range is a full lake for the time of year. The minimum power pool is 1,022 feet. Above 1,074 feet the lake is storing floodwater, and the flood control pool tops out at 1,099 feet. At 1,074 feet the lake covers about 3,220 acres.
Why does the Carters Lake level change every day?
Carters is a pumped storage project. Two of its four units can pump water from the reregulation pool below the dam back up into the main lake when power demand is low, then send it back through the turbines when demand is high. That cycle moves the main lake about a foot and a half on a typical day and more than two and a half feet on roughly one day in ten.
What is the highest Carters Lake has been?
The highest daily average in the USGS record is 1,099.1 feet on 4 March 2019, with a peak reading of 1,099.69 feet that day. On 27 February 2019 the Corps reported the lake at 1,099 feet and still rising, said it had not exceeded its designated flood storage, and raised releases below the reregulation dam to 5,300 cubic feet per second. The top of the flood pool is 1,099 feet and the dam crest is 1,112.3 feet.
What is the lowest Carters Lake has been?
The lowest daily average in the USGS record is 1,045.25 feet on 30 November 2007, about 29 feet below summer full pool, during the Southeast drought that peaked that October. The lake stayed near 1,046 feet into early January 2008 and was back above 1,077 feet by May. The USGS daily record only begins in June 2007, so lows from the lake's first three decades are not included.
How deep is Carters Lake?
The Corps puts the average depth at about 200 feet, with some parts of the lake more than 450 feet deep, which makes it the deepest of Georgia's reservoir lakes. The depth comes from the dam itself: the main embankment rises 445 feet above its foundation, and about 242,200 acre-feet of water sits below the minimum power pool as dead storage.
What is the Carters reregulation pool?
It is a second, smaller lake of roughly 1,000 acres directly below Carters Dam, held by its own dam. It catches water released through the powerhouse and is the source the pump turbines draw from when they refill the main lake, so its level can move between 662.5 and 698 feet. It has its own ramp near the powerhouse off Old Highway 411 with no launch fee, and fishing decks on the river below.
What fish are in Carters Lake?
Georgia DNR names Alabama bass, striped bass and walleye as the best bets. Alabama bass far outnumber largemouth, which make up about five percent of the black bass. DNR stocks walleye every spring, and most run 16 to 22 inches, with fish over eight pounds possible. Stripers are stocked yearly; fish from the 2013 and 2014 stockings now run 30 inches and more. The lake also holds hybrids, channel and flathead catfish, and a few black crappie.
Flow released below Carters Lake
This gauge reads the water leaving the dam, which is the number to check for fishing, paddling and downstream conditions. Live flow is tracked on riverlvl.com.
Other lakes near Carters Lake
- Lake ChatugeGA/NC
- Lake Blue RidgeGA
- Lake Harding (Bartletts Ferry)GA/AL
- Lake BlackshearGA
- Lake HartwellGA/SC
- Lake AllatoonaGA
See current levels for all 16 Georgia lakes and reservoirs →
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